When it ended, I found myself so unwilling to part with William's clear, honest voice in my ear that I pulled out a stack of her previous books: Refuge, Red, Leap, etc.. They are wonderful to re-read all at once, in the sequence of publication, which allows one to follow the evolution of her work, politics, and spiritual beliefs. And although I first read these volumes when I, too, lived in the American South-west, returning to her books from the green hills of Devon underscores how universal our need is for connection to the wild.

So this, dear readers, is "Terry Tempest Williams Week" here at The Drawing Board, with a week's worth of quotes drawn from various books, essays, and interviews. Today's quote is from When Women Were Birds -- excerpted from a passage in which Williams reflects on the powerful art installation pictured below. (The birds are made out of X-ray film from hospital MRIs.)

"Now, in a shift of light," Williams writes, "the shadows of birds are more pronounced
on the gallery's white wall. The shadow of each bird is speaking to me.
Each shadow doubles the velocity, ferocity of forms. The shadow, my
shadow now merges with theirs. Descension. Ascension. The velocity of
wings creates the whisper to awaken....

"I want to feel both the beauty and the pain of the age we are living
in. I want to survive my life without becoming numb. I want to speak and
comprehend words of wounding without having these words become the
landscape where I dwell. I want to possess a light touch that can
elevate darkness to the realm of stars."

Yes. Yes. Yes.

"Swoop" by Julia Barello. Please visit the artist's website to see more of her work. If you're in the mood for further reading, an old article on mine on the folklore of birds is here.

When it ended, I found myself so unwilling to part with William's clear, honest voice in my ear that I pulled out a stack of her previous books: Refuge, Red, Leap, etc.. They are wonderful to re-read all at once, in the sequence of publication, which allows one to follow the evolution of her work, politics, and spiritual beliefs. And although I first read these volumes when I, too, lived in the American South-west, returning to her books from the green hills of Devon underscores how universal our need is for connection to the wild.

So this, dear readers, is "Terry Tempest Williams Week" here at The Drawing Board, with a week's worth of quotes drawn from various books, essays, and interviews. Today's quote is from When Women Were Birds -- excerpted from a passage in which Williams reflects on the powerful art installation pictured below. (The birds are made out of X-ray film from hospital MRIs.)

"Now, in a shift of light," Williams writes, "the shadows of birds are more pronounced
on the gallery's white wall. The shadow of each bird is speaking to me.
Each shadow doubles the velocity, ferocity of forms. The shadow, my
shadow now merges with theirs. Descension. Ascension. The velocity of
wings creates the whisper to awaken....

"I want to feel both the beauty and the pain of the age we are living
in. I want to survive my life without becoming numb. I want to speak and
comprehend words of wounding without having these words become the
landscape where I dwell. I want to possess a light touch that can
elevate darkness to the realm of stars."

Yes. Yes. Yes.

"Swoop" by Julia Barello. Please visit the artist's website to see more of her work. If you're in the mood for further reading, an old article on mine on the folklore of birds is here.

Myth & Moor

by Terri Windling

I'm a writer, artist, and book editor interested in myth, folklore, fairy tales, and the ways they are used in contemporary arts. I workin the New York publishing industry but I live in alittle village at the edgeof Dartmoor in Devon, England, with my husband, dramatist Howard Gayton, our daughter, Victoria Windling-Gayton, and a dog named Tilly. If you'd like to know more, my publishing bio is here, and my website is here.

“There are some people who live in a dream world,” said Douglas Everett, “and some who face reality; and then there are those who turn one into the other.”

I want to be the latter.

About this blog:

Myth & Moor is a daily journal for musings about art, myth, books, village life, and the world-wide community of folks who create and love Mythic Arts.

"As a poet I hold the most archaic values on earth...the fertility of the soil, the magic of animals, the power-vision in solitude, the terrifying initiation and rebirth, the love and ecstasy of the dance, the common work of the tribe. I try to hold both history and the wilderness in mind, that my poems may approach the true measure of things and stand against the unbalance and ignorance of our times." - Gary Snyder

"People talk about medium. What is your medium? My medium as a writer has been dirt, clay, sand - what I could touch, hold, stand on, and stand for - Earth. My medium has been Earth. Earth in correspondence with my mind.” - Terry Tempest Williams

"This earth that we live on is full of stories in the same way that, for a fish, the ocean is full of ocean. Some people say when we are born we’re born into stories. I say we’re also born from stories." - Ben Okri

"Everything is held together with stories. That is all that is holding us together, stories and compassion." - Barry Lopez

Bookshelf

The Wood Wife:A mythic novel set in the Sonoran desert of Arizona. This link goes to the US edition; a UK edition is available here; and the new French edition is here. (For those who might be interested, I did a Q-&-A session on the book over on the Good Reads site.) Winner of the Mythopoeic Award.

Welcome to Bordertown:The latest volume in a classic Urban Fantasy series for YA readers. (An Audie Award nominee, for the audio book edition.) For information on the previous books, visit the Bordertown website.)

All told, I've published over forty books for children, teenagers and adults. More information on my writing, editing, and art can be found on my website.

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Please note that these books are linked to Amazon because it's the only book linking system that Typepad (this blogging service) has,but I urge you to please support your local bookstore if you plan to purchase any of the books mentioned on this blog.

Links to:

The Endicott StudioThe nonprofit organization for Mythic Arts that I ran for 22 years (starting in 1986), co-directed with author & folklorist Midori Snyder. The organization is currently on hiatus (while we catch our breaths and make a living), but a great deal of material from our Journal of Mythic Arts archive remains online.

Interstitial ArtsEllen Kushner, Delia Sherman, & other good folk look at writing and art in the interstices between genres. I was one of the founding board members, and remain an enthusiastic supporter.

Brain PickingsI have no connection whatsoever with this inspiring blog by Maria Popova. I list it here because it's my favorite site on the Web, and deserves to be widely known.